


little pieces

by mainvocalrocky (infinityxu)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, boys crying, minghao accidentally hits joshua in the eye and everyones emo, not enough haoshua in this world, thats it thats the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 11:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14851782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinityxu/pseuds/mainvocalrocky
Summary: Never in his life had Joshua gotten punched in the eye, and he really wasn't expecting the first time to be from one of his members - especially in a situation like this.





	little pieces

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Greet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greet/gifts).



> This was for a prompt challenge! The prompt was haoshua/mingshua/whatever theyre called +“That’s swelling up scary fast." enjoy!!
> 
> i love them as a pair ok??? i enjoyed writing this so much and i hope yall like it!!

Squabbles happened pretty often within their group.

 

Usually it was over stupid stuff, like who got to use the bathroom first the next morning before a heavily scheduled day. Who got to take a shower first after a long day of practice. Who had to clean the practice room. Who had to take lists when they ordered takeout. Who had to pay for it.

 

Joshua never got involved, most of the time. If he was picked for one of the bad things, he didn't mind much, and if he was picked last for one of the good things, he would just use that to get first the next time. Some of the members really got too caught up in the little things, and Joshua was one of the ones that preferred to just be nice about it and move on. Even if he wasn't a fan of a certain choice.

 

Minghao, however, was the opposite. He tried to be reasonable, most of the time, and Joshua had seen him improve with it. But when his best friend was as thick headed as Mingyu was, sometimes, it was difficult for him to just move on.

 

“How many times do I have to tell you? I'm just saying that it's your turn to clean.” Minghao was really  _ trying  _ to be reasonable, but the aggression was coming through in his voice. Joshua could hear it from the other side of the room.

 

He took a sip from his water bottle, sighing as he watched the two squabble during the break. Soonyoung seemed to be watching them, too, but not paying too much attention. Most of the others were either in the restrooms or filling up their water bottles, so the arguing pair didn’t have much of an audience anyway.

 

“We don’t have to clean every day!” Mingyu huffed in response, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked more annoyed than angry, which was usually the case between the two of them. This only happened when they got annoyed with each other, and it never went much further than that.

 

“Thirteen people come and go in here every day, so yes, we have to clean  _ everyday. _ ” Minghao spat back in response, and Joshua heard Soonyoung sigh beside him.

 

“It’s not my fault you’re such a neat freak! I don’t even see anything that needs to be cleaned!” Mingyu continued, and at this point, Soonyoung gave a silent nod for Joshua to come help diffuse the situation with him, so he followed him over to the other side of the practice room rather quickly.

 

“I’m not - I’m not a neat freak! I’m just -” Minghao was losing his cool pretty quickly and Joshua could see that physically with the way he started using his hands. He tried to interrupt for a moment, but Mingyu jumped back into the argument without wasting a breath, and Joshua’s mouth was shut again.

 

“Yeah, you are! Sometimes, I wonder if you care more about who cleans what and where than you care about what we’re  _ actually  _ in here for - ” Mingyu snapped at him, and Joshua was so shocked to hear that from him that he felt his eyes widen. That was a stupid, impulsive comment and it definitely wasn’t one that they were going to tolerate.

 

Joshua stepped forward from his former place behind Minghao, lips parted and ready to separate the two of them from this ridiculous and messy argument.

 

It seemed that Minghao didn’t exactly see Joshua standing behind him, though, because when began to continue the argument in ramblings, he threw his arms out rather violently in exasperation - and one fist was positioned so perfectly that it flew right into Joshua’s right eye.

 

Joshua stumbled backwards, from the force but also just to get away from any further possible hits. That was one hundred percent an accident, from what Joshua could tell, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt like anything he had felt in a long time - in his _ face, _ especially. He pressed one of his hands over both eyes, the other grabbing at his palm as he screwed his eyes shut. As if that would help.

 

“Holy  _ shit,” _ Soonyoung sounded like he was holding a breath before he said that, and he guessed it was also him who had a hand on his shoulder - Joshua didn’t look, because honestly, he was too scared to open his eye. “Are you okay? Did he get your eye?”

 

Soonyoung’s words made it sound like Minghao had done this on purpose, and Joshua was certain that wasn’t the case - but he realizing that Minghao would blame himself no matter what, and if Joshua wouldn’t toughen up about this, it would scare Minghao even more than it scared himself.

 

Joshua tried to push himself into regaining his composure, lowering his hands except for one just lightly covering his eye. He still didn’t dare open that one, and actually, he wasn’t sure if he could - but when he opened his other eye and saw Minghao’s expression, he realized the kid was absolutely horrified at what he had just done - accident or not.

 

“It’s okay,”  _ it’ll probably just bruise a bit,  _ he wanted to say, but the pain was taking away any willingness he had to speak. He hissed with an inward breath and chewed his lip, trying to keep any tears back. The problem was that it didn’t just hurt his eye, it hurt his whole head.

 

“What the hell happened?” Seungcheol’s voice came from the door and Joshua heard a few footsteps, indicating that more than one person had just walked in. Seungcheol’s ‘scary voice’ definitely wasn’t going to help here, and Joshua wanted to diffuse things before Minghao could blame himself any further, but Soonyoung was already urging him to sit against the wall, and someone else had rushed over to press a cold water bottle to his eye.

 

Joshua murmured a thank you and pressed it to his eye himself, trying his hardest to ignore how the pain pulsed through his whole head. He needed to focus on the situation, but everyone was talking so much and asking a hundred questions, he could hardly get a word in - even if his mouth would let him.

 

“Oh, geez…” Soonyoung sighed heavily when he took the bottle from Joshua’s eye, he guessed to get a better look. “That’s swelling up scary fast. He got you good.”

 

“He didn’t mean to,” Joshua decided to murmur, taking the bottle from Soonyoung to place back against his eye. He heard Jeonghan, who must have been the one to give him the water bottle, murmur something about an ice pack before ordering someone else to go get one.

 

“I know,” Soonyoung reassured, a hand rubbing his shoulder. “Still, that’s gonna be a black eye for sure.”

 

“Minghao _ hit _ Joshua hyung?” Seokmin said rather dramatically after a pair of footsteps told Joshua that he had just walked in. Crazy how fast rumors spread among the thirteen of them.

 

“Minghao hyung wouldn’t do that!” Seungkwan defended.

 

“That’s why I’m confused!” Seokmin said back, and Seungcheol hissed at both of them to quiet down.

 

The odd thing was that it sounded like they were talking about someone who wasn’t there, when Joshua was pretty sure that Minghao was still in the room with them - wasn’t he? He tried to push Soonyoung and Jeonghan away from him, just a bit, because their attention was starting to suffocate him. He wasn’t dying, he was really okay. It just hurt.

 

“Where did he even go?” Seungkwan asked meekly, and at that point, Joshua forced an eye open. Minghao wasn’t standing where he was when everything had happened. In fact, when Joshua got a better look around the practice room, Minghao wasn’t standing anywhere.

 

“He left when we came in.” Jeonghan grumbled in a tone that Joshua didn’t want to hear from him. It was okay for him to get protective, Joshua understood that this was a tough an uncommon situation, but he didn’t need to get aggressive. Especially when this wasn’t Minghao’s fault.

 

“I need to go talk to him,” Joshua murmured, trying to push away from the both of them - but Soonyoung forced him back down.

 

“No,  _ Mingyu  _ needs to go apologize for what he said. We need to take you to urgent care for this.” Soonyoung told him, much more forcefully than he’d ever spoken to Joshua. “I know you want to make sure he’s okay, but you’re the one whose eye is swelling up twice its size. We need to make sure that he didn’t mess up your face, on purpose or not.”

 

Joshua’s normal eye travelled up to Mingyu, who currently looked like a puppy that had just been kicked - his head bowed and his hands twisted in front of himself. He could tell that Mingyu completely regretted everything he had already said, but he looked hesitant to go and apologize.

 

“What did you say to him?” Seungcheol asked, a little calmer than how he’d sounded before. While the others did some investigating, Hansol handed him an ice pack for his eye, which he greatly appreciated. The ice felt way better than the water bottle did.

 

“Something stupid.” Soonyoung interrupted before Mingyu could say anything, and he stood up. “Point is, he needs to go apologize.” Joshua saw how Mingyu flinched when Soonyoung glared at him.

 

“We need to bring him to urgent care, like you said.” Jeonghan said softly, sounding a lot more worried than he did before - and Joshua realized that was because he was shaking. The pain was still there, but it was a throbbing pain, pulsing through his whole head. He was chewing his lip for some sort of distraction, and maybe Jeonghan had noticed that, too.

 

Soonyoung tried to urge him to stand up, and honestly, Joshua preferred the floor right now. When he was on his feet, the pain made him dizzy enough to lie down this time, but he forced himself to power through it.

 

“I’ll drive him...you should come, Jeonghan.” Seungcheol said, when Joshua looked over, still pressing the ice pack to his eye. The feeling of having one eye so cold made him want to put an ice pack on the other side, too, but he was glad that he was only hit in  _ one  _ eye.

 

* * *

 

“You’re really lucky we won’t be promoting soon. Imagine what Carats would think, seeing your eye like that. What would we even say? Hao hit you with his nun-chucks?”

 

Joshua hated that Seungcheol and Jeonghan were staring at him like that, but he supposed there wasn’t much he could do about it. They were worried, and honestly, the look Jeonghan was giving him made it seem like he was expecting him to cry. He was  _ really  _ thankful that Soonyoung gave him some pain killers before they left, though, or else he might’ve starting crying already.

 

He was leaned back on the examination chair, his eyes at the ceiling. He wasn’t sure how long they were waiting, but he should have expected a wait like this, this late at night.

 

Seungcheol was in one of the chairs at the side of the room, and Jeonghan was standing right next to the examination chair, his hand holding Joshua’s, like it had been for a while. If Joshua didn’t know better, he might have thought that Jeonghan was the doctor, the way he was staring at his eye.

 

“Those two really need to get their attitudes in check.” Jeonghan grumbled when Joshua started to shut his eyes a bit, realizing how tired he was. Jeonghan squeezed his hand a little harder. “Especially Minghao. I swear, he’s like, developing anger issues-”

 

“Please don’t say that. I know you’re mad, but that just isn’t true, Hannie.” Joshua said softly as he forced his eyes open again, trying to derail Jeonghan’s thoughts.

 

“He’s right about the arguing, Josh.” Seungcheol said from his seat, with a little sigh. Joshua took his hand away from Jeonghan’s, and he noticed the way Jeonghan’s eyes widened at that.

 

“He’s stressed, just like everyone else.” Joshua raised his voice, just a bit. “You can’t blame him for that. He didn’t mean to hit me  _ or  _ Mingyu. I got in the way at the wrong time, and that’s all, and if I hear one more word about it from you guys, I swear…” he huffed, leaning his head back more before he let himself get any angrier with them. Anger wouldn’t help, and he knew that, but they were acting like this happened all the time, when Joshua  _ knew  _ it didn’t. They were just riled up from what happened, because they were protective, and that was the truth.

 

“Joshua-”

 

“No.”

 

He didn’t like pulling out this kind of tone with them, but it was the only way to get them to shut up about it. He knew exactly how Minghao felt. He knew how horrible it felt to hurt another person in a way that wasn’t purposeful, mentally or physically. Joshua still blamed himself for Minghao’s back injury, even if he would tell himself every day that the _ one time _ he had knocked him over during practice couldn’t have caused something like that. It was still on his mind, all the time.

 

They were finally home from urgent care, and thankfully, the doctor didn’t see anything wrong with his eye aside from swelling and eventual bruising. He said just what Soonyoung said - this was going to end up as a black eye, and it might be best to wear a patch while he was in public, if that would happen - but other than that, he would be okay. Joshua was glad he would be able to tell Minghao that.

 

Once they were inside, most of the lights were off, and Joshua guessed they were all asleep - it was three in the morning, after all. He hoped that someone had stepped up and gotten Minghao and Mingyu to talk to each other, but that might have been too much to ask, considering the three oldest were the ones that were out of the house.

 

Once they turned the corner after quietly shutting the front door, Joshua noticed someone sitting in the kitchen, his hands in his lap with a blank stare at the table. Seungkwan, he noticed after wandering closer.

 

“Hyung?” he murmured when he looked up to Joshua, looking and sounding absolutely exhausted. It was nearly three in the morning, what was he doing sitting there like that?

 

“You should be asleep, Seungkwannie.” Joshua told him, wandering over. Seungkwan’s tired eyes were staring at the eyepatch over Joshua’s eye. “What are you doing out here?”

 

Jeonghan and Seungcheol walked into the kitchen behind him, and at first, Seungkwan looked too afraid to say anything and that scared Joshua more than anything. 

 

“Minghao hasn’t come home yet.” Seungkwan murmured, his eyes away from the three of them and staring at his hands that tapped the table he sat at instead. Joshua saw him shaking. “He told me he was going for a run, but that was like, at one. It’s three now...right? And, I tried calling him but he won't answer, so I don’t know where he went or where he is and I was too scared to tell anyone, it’s my fault if he doesn’t come back because I didn’t stop him, I’m sorry-”

 

Joshua had pulled up a chair next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, worry flooding his chest already. Seungkwan almost flinched when Joshua touched him but he stopped his rambling, looking very dangerously close to tears. 

 

“Slow down, Seungkwan. It’s not your fault, you can’t stop him from doing anything.” Jeonghan said from behind Joshua, much to his surprise. Joshua knew he was right, at least, since Minghao was pretty independent as it was. “He’ll come back home. But you’ll scare him if he comes home to you crying.”

 

Seungkwan was rubbing at his eyes, already taking Jeonghan’s words into account. Joshua was thankful for Seungkwan for staying out here late enough to at least tell them that Minghao had left - he would never blame him for not stopping him.

 

“Please go to bed.” Joshua said softly. “I can stay out here and wait for him. I think I need to talk to him, anyway,” he continued, his words dying on his tongue at the end of the sentence. Seungkwan looked a little calmer, at least. He was glad that Jeonghan interjected, instead of letting his own emotions about the situation get in the way.

 

“You need to go to bed too.” Jeonghan murmured with a sigh.

 

“I know, but I’m not letting you sit out here and wait for him. No offence, but I’d rather talk to him myself.” Joshua said, turning his head to face Jeonghan again. Joshua couldn’t tell too well in the dark kitchen, but it looked like Jeonghan was pouting. “I don’t want to leave this for tomorrow and let him sit in his thoughts all night, either.”

 

“That’s a good point.” Seungcheol added rather tiredly. “Maybe we should go out and look for him, though?”

 

“He’ll come back.” Joshua said. He knew that Minghao wouldn’t be gone too long. He wondered if he was waiting for them to come home and go to bed, so he could sneak back in and avoid any sort on confrontation. That sounded like something he would do. “I’ll wait here.”

 

After what seemed like forever, Jeonghan and Seungcheol finally backed off and went to bed. Seungkwan was the first to go, and Joshua was glad - this situation didn’t need more guilt added to it. He hoped Seungkwan would be able to sleep despite everything.

 

Joshua was messing around on his phone for the most part, trying to distract himself while he waited for Minghao. The occasional noise somewhere in the dorm scared him, even more so when he heard a door open. It was just Wonwoo, asking what Joshua was doing in the kitchen, but Joshua realized that Wonwoo was half asleep and hardly listening to his explanation, so he told him to go back to bed and not worry about it.

 

He was starting to worry himself when he saw a four on his phone clock instead of a three.

 

That meant it had been an hour since they got home, and hour of him waiting for Minghao to come home, which meant Joshua was losing sleep and Minghao was still outside by himself.

 

He hoped that Minghao was okay. He hoped that he was on his way back, at least, not stuck somewhere all alone. Or hiding. But he had to trust him, even if it meant he was going to worry to the point of getting teary.

 

Heading for Minghao’s room was his choice instead right now, taking his phone with him and sitting in the corner of the bed. He liked how neat Minghao’s room was - there were little parts of his personality all over the room, but not to the point where it looked cluttered. If felt warm, the same way Minghao felt.

 

Joshua caught himself falling asleep when he heard the door start to creak open, and he just barely saw Minghao’s face in the crack between the door and the frame, just before it closed and he vanished again. It happened to quickly that Joshua had to wonder if he was dreaming at first, but he pushed himself off of the bed anyway.

 

He stumbled out of the room, softly calling Minghao’s name through a yawn once or twice when he did so. He didn’t see Minghao anywhere around him, or anywhere in the area - but then again, it was a bit hard to see considering all the lights were off. He had to search quite a bit before catching the low phone light coming from the living room, where Minghao sat with his head hung, staring at the phone in his hands.

 

“There you are,” Joshua said softly. Minghao didn’t move, or turn his head - he just sat still, as if he was expecting Joshua to go away if Minghao didn’t interact with him. “Scoot over.” Minghao did what he asked, scooting to the very edge of the couch. Joshua sat beside him, leaving a bit of space in between the two of them. He wasn’t here to scare him away, after all.

 

Minghao looked up from his phone, and Joshua could see the pain in his eyes when he noticed the eyepatch. It hurt him to see that like of look on Minghao’s face.

 

“Hey, they said it’s okay. It’s just going to bruise a little.” Joshua told him, trying to sound as sincere as possible so that Minghao would believe him - and not just think he was saying that to make him feel better. “You didn’t hurt me.”

 

“You’re wearing an eyepatch.” Minghao murmured so quietly that Joshua almost asked him to repeat himself. His statement was stating the obvious, sure, but it sounded more like he was pointing out that the eyepatch was evidence that he _ had  _ hurt him.

 

“I don’t have to wear it.” Joshua insisted.

 

Minghao was quiet again, and Joshua found himself at a loss of what to do. This was harder than he thought it would be.

 

“You know that no one blames you, right?” Joshua reminded him after a moment of silence between the two of them. “It’s not your fault. If anything, I was stupid for stepping behind you like that. I forgot how quick you are about moving.” he tried to joke, but Minghao’s only reaction was to tense up.

 

“I’m still sorry for hurting you, hyung.” Minghao mumbled, his eyes anywhere but on Joshua. “It wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t argue with Gyu in the first place.”

 

“Maybe that’s true, but, sometimes it happens. Not everyone can be best friends all the time.” Joshua had to remind him. He knew that no perfect friendships. He himself had even gotten angry with Jeonghan at the urgent care center, but he knew Jeonghan didn’t hold it against him. “And I hope you know that what Mingyu said isn’t even close to being true. He didn’t mean that.”

 

Minghao was quiet again, for a moment, but Joshua noticed something this time that he didn’t notice last time. Minghao was definitely holding back tears. Joshua was flustered at first, but not outwardly. He wasn’t sure what to do about a person who was almost crying,  _ especially  _ a person like Minghao - who almost never cried in front of any of them.

 

Joshua took his hand, though, something he did know how to do, and leaned into him a bit. He noticed how Minghao tensed up again but his body relaxed after a few seconds, and so did Joshua.

 

He didn’t say anything to him - he just held onto him for an amount of minutes that he didn’t know, and let him cry. He wasn’t loud at all- honestly, if Joshua wasn’t paying attention enough to hear his little sounds, he wouldn’t have known he was crying at all. Joshua even caught a few tears from his own eyes - he didn’t really know why. His eye still hurt, yeah, but it was more soreness than pain. Minghao was home, so he wasn’t worried for him anymore - maybe he was just crying because he was crying.

 

“I love you, you know.” Joshua told him softly, noticing that Minghao was fairly quiet again.

 

He wasn’t expecting Minghao to say anything back - he wasn’t the type to. But this time, he did. “Thank you.”

 

Joshua wondered what Minghao was thanking him for - whatever it was, he took it as an  _ I love you too _ anyway.

 

* * *

 

Joshua was still half asleep when he heard quiet whispers from around the living room.

 

He realized that he was still on the couch, but it felt like a different position. When he initially leaned on Minghao that night, his injured eye was facing him - now, if felt like his head was in his lap, with his injured eye facing away from him. He wondered if Minghao had moved him for Joshua’s comfort, or if that was a coincidence. That would have to mean Minghao moved all the way to the other side of the couch in his sleep, though. And Joshua would have bed to flip, too.

 

He felt relaxed, which never happened after a night on a couch like the one they had. He had a blanket over him, too - had Minghao really done all of that?

 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen them like that. It’s weird.” Joshua heard Wonwoo whispering, following by a louder ‘ _ Shh!’  _ from Seokmin.

 

“He was probably tired. Minghao was gone for almost the whole night, from what I understand.” Jeonghan said with a puff. Joshua almost smiled at the little hint of jealousy in his voice, but he remembered that he was pretending to sleep.

 

“Oooh,” That was definitely Mingyu’s voice - it was good to know he was out here too, and not avoiding Minghao for what happened. Joshua was ready to hear an apology from that kid for sure. “Sounds like someone’s jealous.”

 

“I’m not - whatever.” Jeonghan puffed. A few giggles followed.

 

“Well, from what I understand, this only happens if you punch Joshua hyung in the eye. So, go for it, he’s got one left.”

 

Seungkwan’s statement had even Joshua laughing.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> unbeta-read and a little rushed but a proud addition to the very small joshua/minghao fanfic collection lolol
> 
> Thank you for reading!! As always, please come talk to me [here](http://mainvocalrocky.tumblr.com) on tumblr!! I love yall ♥♥♥


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